Yesterday I did not fill up my gas tank because I refused to spend that much money. After the frustration wore off it reminded me of high school when almost nobody could afford to fill their tank.
I didn’t drive that much in school, and didn’t get my first car until after we graduated, but I know the guys I rode with rarely filled their tank. A dollar or two at a time was usually the way it went. The price of gas is more now, but it was pure economics then too. We just didn’t have that much money to spend on gas and entertainment, even tho more times than not, simply driving around was our entertainment.
After I got married I was on an allowance of $10 every two weeks, and with that $10 I could buy a case of beer, a carton of cigarettes and fill the car up with gas. Ten bucks would not come close to covering either of those now.
Along the same lines was hitchhiking. I hitched to Lenoir City several times and to Sweetwater or Piney or Steekee a few times too. After joining the USAF, and before I got my own car, a friend and I hitched all over Southern California. After I got a car I picked up several people, male and female, hitching to different places. I remember once picking up a hiker near Memphis and he rode all the way to Southern California with me. I would neither hitch, nor pick up anyone hitching, anymore.
I think with the gas thing, we have come full circle.
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